Blu-ray Movie Reviews

Sort By:  Post Date TitlePublish Date
Blu-ray Movie Reviews
White Heat
Fred Kaplan  |  Nov 08, 2013  | 
Picture
Sound
Extras
Interactivity
White Heat is one of the greatest gangster movies ever made. It’s a true film noir, a Freudian character study, and a pioneering police procedural, with slick suspense, a dry wit, and a deep-cutting (but not bloody) cruelty that’s still jarring today. The script is by Ivan Goff and Ben Roberts, who later wrote a few seasons of the Charlie’s Angels TV show, which at its best pulled off a warmed-over, softly satirical simulacrum of those traits.
Continue Reading »
Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Jack Reacher
Chris Chiarella  |  Nov 08, 2013  | 
Picture
Sound
Extras
Interactivity
You take on some baggage when your movie stars Tom Cruise. He’s been a box office titan for decades, so you’re improving your chances of a hit. On the other hand, ever since the couch-jumping incident, he tends to bring a certain off-screen persona that rubs a lot of folks the wrong way. Plus, a leading man of his magnitude tends to be Tom first, character second.
Continue Reading »
3D Blu-ray Movie ReviewsBlu-ray Movie ReviewsThis Week
This Week in Movies & TV, October 29, 2013: Dead of Night
Josef Krebs  |  Oct 31, 2013  | 
Deadwood: The Complete Series, La Notte, Monster Cars: Monsters University 3D & Cars 3D, and Agatha Christie’s Poirot, Series 9.
Continue Reading »
Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Cloud Atlas
Chris Chiarella  |  Oct 31, 2013  | 
Picture
Sound
Extras
Interactivity
Cloud Atlas is something of a cinematic curiosity. It is incredibly ambitious and deftly executed, weaving together six disparate tales with similar themes of oppression and rebellion, each told with the same handful of actors playing the key roles in each scenario. Set in different locations and in eras ranging from 1849 up through 2321, the movie serves up everything from a single slave earning his freedom on a sailing ship to a genetically engineered hostess inspiring a full-on societal revolt. But even when the all-star filmmaking team of the Wachowskis and Tom Tykwer has three hours to play with, not one of the half-dozen narratives can be particularly deep or overwhelmingly original. They have, however, fashioned an enormous event movie that pushes technique—dramatic as well as purely technical—into bold new territory.
Continue Reading »
Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Identity Thief
Corey Gunnestad  |  Oct 24, 2013  | 
Picture
Sound
Extras
Interactivity
In the opening scene of Identity Thief, financial analyst Sandy Patterson (Jason Bateman) receives a phone call from the Fraud Protection Department at Indenti-Vault Credit Monitoring Service. A woman named Janine informs him that someone has tried to steal his identity. Fortunately, they prevented it in time, but to circumvent future problems, she offers him a free total protection plan that will safeguard his credit against theft or fraud.
Continue Reading »
Blu-ray Movie ReviewsThis Week
This Week in Movies & TV, October 22, 2013: Pure Talent—19 Movies in 3 Gift Sets
Josef Krebs  |  Oct 23, 2013  | 
Three super collections on Blu-ray—John Cassavetes: Five Films, The Vincent Price Collection, Bruce Lee: The Legacy Collection
Continue Reading »
Blu-ray Movie Reviews
This Week in Movies & TV, October 8, 2013: Horror, Sci-Fi, & Shakespeare
Josef Krebs  |  Oct 10, 2013  | 
Much Ado About Nothing, After Earth, The Hangover Part III, Fear Eats the Soul 3 – The Night After the Nightmare: The Exorcist, Curse of Chucky, Chucky: The Complete Collection, I Married a Witch, Zombie Hunter, American Horror Story: Asylum, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea & Fantastic Voyage, Stalag 17.
Continue Reading »
Blu-ray Movie Reviews
This Week in Movies & TV, October 1, 2013: End of the Rainbow
Josef Krebs  |  Oct 02, 2013  | 
The Wizard of Oz 75th anniversary Collector’s Edition, This is the End, Poirot: Series 7 & 8, Jack Irish, The Big Parade, and From Here to Eternity.
Continue Reading »
Blu-ray Movie Reviews
The Master
Shane Buettner  |  Sep 20, 2013  | 
Picture
Sound
Extras
Oscar again made the safe choice for 2012’s Best Picture, choosing Ben Affleck’s blandly competent Argo, virtually ignoring the most provocative film of the year, writer/director Paul Thomas Anderson’s The Master. More egregious is that Anderson’s tour de force only garnered Academy nominations in the acting categories. One can’t help but wonder if the film’s Oscar fate would have been different if the subject was any other cult than Hollywood-chic Scientology. One also suspects Argo will occupy a place in film history closer to How Green Was My Valley, Ordinary People, and Driving Miss Daisy than to Citizen Kane, Raging Bull, or Do the Right Thing.
Continue Reading »
Blu-ray Movie Reviews
TV Nation: Behind the Candelabra, Arrow and Spartacus: War of the Damned
Chris Chiarella  |  Sep 14, 2013  | 
The small screen serves up some big drama in these three TV-on-Blu-ray releases, from Liberace to slave revolt to big-city vigilante justice.
Continue Reading »
Blu-ray Movie Reviews
This Week in Movies & TV, September 10, 2013: Explorers, Spies, & Imposters
SV Staff  |  Sep 10, 2013  | 
Star Trek Into Darkness, Star Trek: Stardate Collection, The Spy Who Came In From The Cold, The Talented Mr. Ripley, Parade’s End, La Cage aux Folles, Marathon Man.
Continue Reading »
Blu-ray Movie Reviews
This Week in Movies & TV, September 3, 2013: Old News
SV Staff  |  Sep 04, 2013  | 
The Hour: Seasons 1&2, Now You See Me, Revolution: Season 1, Cockneys vs Zombies, Person of Interest: Season 2, The Iceman, Da Vinci’s Demons: Season 1, Stories We Tell, The Office: Season 9.
Continue Reading »
Blu-ray Movie Reviews
From Up on Poppy Hill, Prime Suspect and Frankenstein's Army
Chris Chiarella  |  Aug 30, 2013  | 
Father and son Miyazakis craft another touching tale, Helen Mirren shines as a capable cop, and all hell breaks loose in an offbeat World War II gorefest.
Continue Reading »
Blu-ray Movie Reviews
This Week in Movies & TV, August 27, 2013: Razzle Dazzle
SV Staff  |  Aug 27, 2013  | 
The Great Gatsby, Prime Suspect: The Complete Collection, To Be or Not to Be, The Walking Dead: Season 3, And Then There Were None, Kon-Tiki, Pain & Gain.
Continue Reading »
Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Schindler’s List
Chris Chiarella  |  Aug 22, 2013  | 
Picture
Sound
Extras
Interactivity
Steven Spielberg’s long-rumored dream project—bring- ing the factual, Holocaust-set book Schindler’s Ark to the screen—finally arrived to great acclaim in 1993, culminating in Academy Awards for Best Director, Best Picture, and more. Oskar Schindler (Liam Neeson) is a clever civilian businessman and a bit of a cad who achieves a fortune by manufactur- ing pots and pans for the German army during World War II. His secrets? World-class schmoozing and an unpaid legion of Jewish laborers. He has no love of the Nazis or their agenda, but as he bears witness to their escalating atrocities, he is reluctantly moved to become a champion of his ill-fated workforce. His steps are small at first, ultimately leading to the creation of a list of more than 1,000 names of people to be kept at his factory instead of sent to concentration camps or gas chambers. This decision winds up costing Schindler all of his vast wealth, but his selfless act made history. It’s a profound tale told with great passion and indelible images.
Continue Reading »

Pages

X